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The record is made up of 1 file (388 folios). It was created in 17 Jan 1899-4 Apr 1904. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
I found on sounding the Amir that this objection did not carry much weight
with him, as he had already summoned all the Sardars of the country with their
cavalry to attend the show. Out of deference, however, for public feeling I
asked him to counter-order these Sardars, and arranged that the sports and
fireworks should take place at the end of the period of mourning, when the rejoic
ing could be more mutually shared by his people and mine.
This concession was very gratifying to him, and the show, when it does take
place, will be more brilliant and the better attended.
Since this conversation I have received a message from the head Mujtahid
saying that he would like to grace the show in company with the Amir and his
son, the Sarhang, provided there were no beating of drums.
2nd June .—It had been arranged that, though the sports and fireworks were
postponed, the official visits should take place at 7-30 A M. Therefore Mr. Miller,
accompanied by six Cossacks and his Persian staff, rode over in full dress to
present their congratulations. The cossacks on arrival formed a line with my
Afghan sowars, and together we gave a royal salute to the big Union Jack which
was flying for the occasion. Mr. Miller afterwards paid the usual visit of ceremony,
and the cossacks were entertained with tea, etc.
The sight of 16 (Jacob’s Horse) Pathans drawn up in line with Russian
cossacks giving a royal salute has not probably frequently been seen.
Later the Amir Hashmat-ul-Mulk arrived in state to present his congratula
tions. Full uniform was w T orn by myself and the escort, the latter escorting the
Amir back to the Ark or the Fort.
In the evening Mr. Miller dined with me. He is a very well informed and
pleasant companion, but openly despondent about being in Seistan, and has
several times hinted that he does not know whether he can endure the life much
longer, and even that the Consulate itself may be withdrawn.
3rd June .—As I was riding alone through the city, I came on Mr. Miller
making a sort of royal procession followed by cossacks and mounted Farashes,
etc., distributing copper coins to the beggars. As I ride through town so often,
and every one salaams and knows me so well, I think Mr. Miller’s unusual outing
was a form of counteraction, and he must have been much disconcerted when I
joined the procession and received the salaams of the people while he distributed
the copper coins.
The weather was intensely hot, a scorching sun and no wind.
4th June .—Munshi Ahmad Din received a message from Mr. Miller’s
Mirza asking that their Farashbashi should not be received with so much honour
when he accompanied Mr. Miller on his visits to me. It is the custom in camp
here to give tea and smoke to all such visitors. I gather Mr. Miller thinks the
attractiveness of our camp a temptation to his followers.
In the evening the sow r ars invited the cossacks to an evening meal. The
singing and dancing kept up for some time afterwards was proof of very friendly
feelings existing.
3th June .—Weather very oppressive and hot.
6th June. —Mr. Miller dined with me. I asked him what he knew about
the rumours of the Russians having crossed the Afghan frontier towards Herat.
He implied he knew nothing, but I gathered he did know something, as before*
when the question had been discussed, he always jeered at the idea and said
had been a bazaar rumour ever since he had been an official in the East. He
did though remark that the country from Herat south, though generally sup
posed to be so adapted for railway construction, was not officially reported to
be so.
yth June. During the night a windstorm blew with such force as to make
sleep quite impossible. Some of the tents too suffered. The wind here is so
continuous and strong that new tents brought with me already show signs of
2
About this item
- Content
The file contains papers relating to Seistan [Sistan] and Persia [Iran].
The file includes printed copies of despatches from the Agent to the Governor-General of India and HM Consul-General for Khorasan and Seistan (Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Martindale Temple), to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, with enclosed despatches from Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (the Marquis of Salisbury). Skyes’s despatches regard matters including: Seistan; trade routes into South-East Persia; the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan, in relation to the River Helmund [Helmand] changing its course (in despatch No. 5, which includes four sketch maps, folios 12, 13, 14 and 15); Sykes’s journey to Birjand (in despatch No. 7, which includes a sketch map on folio 20); the ruling family of Kain, which also governed Seistan, Tabbas and Tun; Sykes’s journey from Seistan to Kerman [Kirman] (in despatch No. 11, which includes a sketch map); and the direct Kerman-Quetta caravan trade that Sykes was trying to establish.
The file also includes copies of the following papers:
- A despatch from Temple to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing a letter from Temple to Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (HM Minister, Tehran), with copies of enclosures, regarding the establishment of a Seistan and Kain consulate
- A letter from Charles Edward Pitman, Director General of Telegraphs, to the Secretary to the Government of India Public Works Department, enclosing a copy of a ‘Report on the Preliminary Survey of the Route for a Telegraph Line from Quetta to the Persian Frontier’ by H A Armstrong, Assistant Superintendent, Indian Telegraph Department, which includes six photographs of views along the route [Mss Eur F111/352, f 52; Mss Eur F111/352, f 53; Mss Eur F111/352, f 54; Mss Eur F111/352, f 55; Mss Eur F111/352, f 56; and Mss Eur F111/352, f 57], and a map showing the proposed route of the telegraph line [Mss Eur F111/352, f 59]
- Letters from Hugh Shakespear Barnes, Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan, to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing copies of the diary of the Political Assistant, Chagai, for the weeks ending 16 February, 28 February, and 8 March 1900
- Diary No. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of Major-General George Frederick Chenevix-Trench, HM Consul for Seistan (Diary No. 6 includes a sketch map, folio 86)
- A copy of a ‘Report on Reconnaissances Made while Attached to the Seistan Arbitration Commission’ by W A Johns, Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways, Bombay
- A copy of the report ‘Notes on Persian Seistan’, compiled by Captain Edward Abadie Plunkett, and issued by the Government of India Intelligence Branch, Quarter-Master General’s Department
- Two copies of map signed by Plunkett titled ‘Persian Seistan-Cultivated Area’ [Mss Eur F111/352, f 270]
- A booklet entitled ‘Notes on the Leading Notables, Officials, Merchants, and Clergy of Khorasan, Seistan, Kain, and Kerman.’
- Printed copies of letters from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India (Lord George Francis Hamilton), relating to the maintenance of British interests in Persia, dated 4 September 1899 and 7 November 1901 (the former with an enclosure of a minute by the Viceroy on Seistan).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (388 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 390; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file contains one foliation anomaly, f 301A
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/352
- Title
- 'Seistan'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:51v, 58r:58v, 60r:112r, 113r:125v, 147r:218r, 218r, 219r:269v, 271r:301v, 301Ar, 301Av, 302r:388v, 389v:390r, 389r, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence